


Every Storm Named After Her

by nonky



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M, Post Episode: s04e19-e20 Daybreak, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 01:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7915399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonky/pseuds/nonky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His post-war life on Earth wasn't entirely peaceful, and Lee found himself grateful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Storm Named After Her

Lee spent his first weeks on Earth squinting. It was bright, warmed by a real sun and alive. Galactica had been a home, possessed a history that drew thousands of memories to the surface of his mind, but it wasn't more than a machine. It had been home, and it lived in vivid mental pictures he could walk at night when he couldn't sleep. 

He liked the ground, so different from sleeping on metal grating. Grass and trees were amazing. Animals moving cautiously at middle distance fascinated him. He resisted learning to hunt because he wanted this world to be full of life. He joined Gaius in a pompous gardening project meant to teach the new settlers farming. 

People built huts, but he liked sleeping under stars. He'd put up a tent when the weather was truly threatening, but kept part of the canvas open to the sky. Rain was enough of a novelty he put up with damp clothes in the morning. 

The first serious weather they saw was a storm, very little wind but enough clouds to blot out several skies. He was irrationally relieved to see it had no particular colours or omens. It was just dark. The rain continued longer than was charming, longer than the canvas held out, and then he was left crouching to one side of his tent. The last time he'd done this was on Kobol, sharing the space with Kara. Suddenly, there was a charm again, coming with a sadness he embraced because he believed he had more cause to be grateful for Kara than grief she had moved on first.

He dreamed something about her, so commonplace it might have been the dullest memory of the most exciting person he'd ever known. Some nondescript walk down a hallway of the ship, joking on the way to a briefing she would interrupt too many times for Tigh's patience. It should have been a trigger for the longing he could sometimes push down to a vague howling in his soul. He felt it more like a small relief. 

He'd always been so worried about what Kara said, her forced casualness and inability to talk about her feelings. Lee knew now he should have recognized the words were only appeasements to his own needs, showing him she did care. He'd known her in the ways she gave as much as she could, veiled as it was behind her discomfort in being open. He had lost so much pleasure in hearing her voice trying to dig for symbols and hints.

Her first death had been a storm that enlarged to a horror in his mind - failing her and being left by her and having to go home to face his father's desolate grief all in one day. 

The next storm he'd seen gave her back. No man had ever lost a love like Kara, only to have her conjured back to his side without a notion she'd been dead. On Earth, Lee huddled in his ruined tent after the rain, wondering how long he'd have to wait before another storm.


End file.
